Science Matters: Pete Seeger: "From way up here the Earth looks very small"

From the late 1930s until his death, Seeger brought his music to union halls, churches, schools, migrant camps, nightclubs, TV studios, marches and rallies — always inviting audiences to join in . His calling took him from being hauled before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955 to being invited to perform at President Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009 . Like me, he was inspired by Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring to become a strong defender of the environment as well as human rights. In both social justice and environmental causes, he believed in the strength of grassroots efforts. As he told the CBC Radio program Ideas , "The powers that be can break up any big thing they want. They can attack it from the outside. They can infiltrate it and corrupt it from the inside — or co-opt it. But what are they going to do about 10 million little things? They...